Vertebral compression fractures, as illustrated in FIG. 1, represent a generally common spinal injury and may result in prolonged disability. These fractures involve collapsing of one or more vertebral bodies 12 in the spine 10. Compression fractures of the spine usually occur in the lower vertebrae of the thoracic spine or the upper vertebra of the lumbar spine. They generally involve fracture of the anterior portion 18 of the affected vertebra 12 (as opposed to the posterior side 16). Spinal compression fractures can result in deformation of the normal alignment or curvature, e.g., lordosis, of vertebral bodies in the affected area of the spine. Spinal compression fractures and/or related spinal deformities can result, for example, from metastatic diseases of the spine, from trauma or can be associated with osteoporosis. Until recently, doctors were limited in how they could treat such compression fractures and related deformities. Pain medications, bed rest, bracing or invasive spinal surgery were the only options available.
More recently, minimally invasive surgical procedures for treating vertebral compression fractures have been developed. These procedures generally involve the use of a cannula or other access tool inserted into the posterior of the effected vertebral body, usually through the pedicles. The most basic of these procedures is vertebroplasty, which literally means fixing the vertebral body, and may be done without first repositioning the bone.
Briefly, a cannula or special bone needle is passed slowly through the soft tissues of the back. Image guided x-ray, along with a small amount of x-ray dye, allows the position of the needle to be seen at all times. A small amount of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) or other orthopedic cement is pushed through the needle into the vertebral body. PMMA is a medical grade substance that has been used for many years in a variety of orthopedic procedures. Generally, the cement is mixed with an antibiotic to reduce the risk of infection, and a powder containing barium or tantalum, which allows it to be seen on the X-ray.
Vertebroplasty can be effective in the reduction or elimination of fracture pain, prevention of further collapse, and a return to mobility in patients. However, this procedure may not reposition the fractured bone and therefore may not address the problem of spinal deformity due to the fracture. It generally is not performed except in situations where the kyphosis between adjacent vertebral bodies in the effected area is less than 10 percent. Moreover, this procedure requires high-pressure cement injection using low-viscosity cement, and may lead to cement leaks in 30-80% of procedures, according to recent studies. In most cases, the cement leakage does no harm. In rare cases, however, polymethymethacrylate or other cement leaks into the spinal canal or the perivertebral venous system and causes pulmonary embolism, resulting in death of the patient.
More advanced treatments for vertebral compression fractures generally involve two phases: (1) reposition, or restoration of the original height of the vertebral body and consequent lordotic correction of the spinal curvature; and (2) augmentation, or addition of material to support or strengthen the fractured or collapsed bone.
One such treatment, balloon kyphoplasty (Kyphon, Inc.), is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,423,083, 6,248,110, and 6,235,043 to Riley et al., each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. A catheter having an expandable balloon tip is inserted through a cannula, sheath or other introducer into a central portion of a fractured vertebral body comprising relatively soft cancellous bone surrounded by fractured cortical bone. Kyphoplasty then achieves the reconstruction of the lordosis, or normal curvature, by inflating the balloon, which expands within the vertebral body restoring it to its original height. The balloon is removed, leaving a void within the vertebral body, and PMMA or other filler material is then injected through the cannula into the void as described above with respect to vertebroplasty. The cannula is removed and the cement cures to augment, fill or fix the bone.
Disadvantages of this procedure include the high cost, the repositioning of the endplates of the vertebral body may be lost after the removal of the balloon catheter, and the possible perforation of the vertebral endplates during the procedure. As with vertebroplasty, perhaps the most feared, albeit remote, complications concerning kyphoplasty are related to leakage of bone cement. For example, a neurologic deficit may occur through leakage of bone cement into the spinal canal. Such a cement leak may occur through the low resistance veins of the vertebral body or through a crack in the bone which was not appreciated previously. Other complications include additional adjacent level vertebral fractures, infection and cement embolization. Cement embolization occurs by a similar mechanism to a cement leak. The cement may be forced into the low resistance venous system and travel to the lungs or brain resulting in a pulmonary embolism or stroke.
Another approach for treating vertebral compression fractures is the Optimesh system (Spineology, Inc., Stillwater, Minn.), which provides minimally invasive delivery of a cement or allograft or autograft bone using an expandable mesh graft balloon, or containment device, within the involved vertebral body. The balloon graft remains inside the vertebral body after its inflation, which prevents an intraoperative loss of reposition, such as can occur during a kyphoplasty procedure when the balloon is withdrawn. One drawback of this system, however, is that the mesh implant is not well integrated in the vertebral body. This can lead to relative motion between the implant and vertebral body, and consequently to a postoperative loss of reposition. Additional details regarding this procedure may be found, for example, in published U.S. Patent Publication Number 20040073308, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Still another procedure used in the treatment of vertebral compression fractures is an inflatable polymer augmentation mass known as a SKy Bone Expander. This device can be expanded up to a pre-designed size and (Cubic or Trapezoid) configuration in a controlled manner. Like the Kyphon balloon, once optimal vertebra height and void are achieved, the SKy Bone Expander is removed and PMMA cement or other filler is injected into the void. This procedure therefore entails many of the same drawbacks and deficiencies described above with respect to kyphoplasty.
In some cases of fractured or otherwise damaged bones, bone grafts are used to repair or otherwise treat the damaged area. In the United States alone, approximately half a million bone grafting procedures are performed annually, directed to a diverse array of medical interventions for complications such as fractures involving bone loss, injuries or other conditions necessitating immobilization by fusion (such as for the spine or joints), and other bone defects that may be present due to trauma, infection, or disease. Bone grafting involves the surgical transplantation of pieces of bone within the body, and generally is effectuated through the use of graft material acquired from a human source. This is primarily due to the limited applicability of xenografts, transplants from another species.
Orthopedic autografts or autogenous grafts involve source bone acquired from the same individual that will receive the transplantation. Thus, this type of transplant moves bony material from one location in a body to another location in the same body, and has the advantage of producing minimal immunological complications. It is not always possible or even desirable to use an autograft. The acquisition of bone material from the body of a patient typically requires a separate operation from the implantation procedure. Furthermore, the removal of material, oftentimes involving the use of healthy material from the pelvic area or ribs, has the tendency to result in additional patient discomfort during rehabilitation, particularly at the location of the material removal. Grafts formed from synthetic material have also been developed, but the difficulty in mimicking the properties of bone limits the efficacy of these implants.
As a result of the challenges posed by autografts and synthetic grafts, many orthopedic procedures alternatively involve the use of allografts, which are bone grafts from other human sources (normally cadavers). The bone grafts, for example, are placed in a host bone and serve as the substructure for supporting new bone tissue growth from the host bone. The grafts are sculpted to assume a shape that is appropriate for insertion at the fracture or defect area, and often require fixation to that area for example by screws, pins, cement, cages, membranes, etc. Due to the availability of allograft source material, and the widespread acceptance of this material in the medical community, the use of allograft tissues is likely to expand in the field of musculoskeletal surgery.
Notably, the various bones of the body such as the femur (thigh), tibia and fibula (leg), humerus (upper arm), radius and ulna (lower arm) have geometries that vary considerably. In addition, the lengths of these bones vary; for example, in an adult the lengths may vary from 47 centimeters (femur) to 26 centimeters (radius). Furthermore, the shape of the cross section of each type of bone varies considerably, as does the shape of any given bone over its length. While a femur has a generally rounded outer shape, a tibia has a generally triangular outer shape. Also, the wall thickness varies in different areas of the cross-section of each bone. Thus, the use of any given bone to produce an implant component may be a function of the bone's dimensions and geometry. Machining of bones, however, may permit the production of implant components with standardized or custom dimensions.
As a collagen-rich and mineralized tissue, bone is composed of about forty percent organic material (mainly collagen), with the remainder being inorganic material (mainly a near-hydroxyapatite composition resembling 3Ca3(PO4)2Ca(OH)2). Structurally, the collagen assumes a fibril formation, with hydroxyapatite crystals disposed along the length of the fibril, and the individual fibrils are disposed parallel to each other forming fibers. Depending on the type of bone, the fibrils are either interwoven, or arranged in lamellae that are disposed perpendicular to each other.
Bone tissues have a complex design, and there are substantial variations in the properties of bone tissues depending upon the type of bone (i.e., leg, arm, vertebra) as well as the overall structure. For example, when tested in the longitudinal direction, leg and arm bones have a modulus of elasticity of about 17 to 19 GPa, while vertebra tissue has a modulus of elasticity of less than 1 GPa. The tensile strength of leg and arm bones varies between about 120 MPa and about 150 MPa, while vertebra have a tensile strength of less than 4 MPa. Notably, the compressive strength of bone varies, with the femur and humerus each having a maximum compressive strength of about 167 MPa and 132 MPa respectively. Again, the vertebra have a far lower compressive strength usually of no more than about 10 MPa.
With respect to the overall structure of a given bone, the mechanical properties vary throughout the bone. For example, a long bone (leg bone) such as the femur has both compact bone and spongy bone. Cortical bone, the compact and dense bone that surrounds the marrow cavity, is generally solid and thus carries the majority of the load in major bones. Cancellous bone, the spongy inner bone, is generally porous and ductile, and when compared to cortical bone is only about one-third to one-quarter as dense, one-tenth to one-twentieth as stiff, but five times as ductile. While cancellous bone has a tensile strength of about 10-20 MPa and a density of about 0.7 g/cm3, cortical bone has a tensile strength of about 100-200 MPa and a density of about 2 g/cm3. Additionally, the strain to failure of cancellous bone is about 5-7%, while cortical bone can only withstand 1-3% strain before failure. It should also be noted that these mechanical characteristics may degrade as a result of numerous factors such as any chemical treatment applied to the bone material, and the manner of storage after removal but prior to implantation (i.e. drying of the bone).
Notably, implants of cancellous bone incorporate more readily with the surrounding host bone, due to the superior osteoconductive nature of cancellous bone as compared to cortical bone. Furthermore, cancellous bone from different regions of the body is known to have a range of porosities. For example, cancellous bone in the iliac crest has a different porosity than cancellous bone in a femoral head. Thus, the design of an implant using cancellous bone may be tailored to specifically incorporate material of a desired porosity.
There remains a need in the art to provide safe and effective devices and methods for augmentation of fractured or otherwise damaged vertebrae and other bones, preferably devices that may be implanted utilizing minimally invasive methods of implantation.